INS Kattabomman | |
---|---|
Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu | |
Type | Naval station |
Site information | |
Controlled by | Indian Navy |
Site history | |
Built | 1990 |
In use | 1990–present |
Garrison information | |
Occupants | Southern Naval Command |
INS Kattabomman is the designation of the VLF-transmission facility of the Indian Navy situated at Vijayanarayanam near Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. [1] The facility spread over 3,000 acres has 13 masts, which are arranged in two rings around the central mast. The centre mast has a height of 301 metres, the masts on the inner ring measure 276.4 metres, that on the outer ring measure 227.4 metres.
Two further masts of the station carrying an umbrella antenna, the INS Kattabomman is 471 metres tall and the tallest structure in India. They are also the tallest military structure in the world. The facility opened an ELF transmission facility in 2014. [2] [3]
Development and construction of INS Kattabomman started in 1984 as Project Skylark and costed ₹122 crore (equivalent to ₹11 billionorUS$130 million in 2023). [4] It was commissioned into service by Indian President Ramaswamy Venkataraman on 20 October 1990. It is named after king Veera Pandya Kattabomman, who died during the Indian independence movement. [1]
After operationalising the base, India became the seventh country in the world to have developed the Very low frequency communication capability. [5]
On 31 July 2014, a new Very low frequency facility was inaugurated at INS Kattabomman. The upgrade was contracted to Larsen & Toubro. [6] The upgrade included digitising the control interface. [5]
An Extremely low frequency communication facility is also present near the VLF facility, construction of which commenced in March 2012. [3] The facility is used by the Nuclear Command Authority to communicate with the Arihant-class submarines. [7]
India is the second country after Russia to actively operate an Extremely low frequency facility; the United States had discontinued using it in 2004. Another such facility is proposed in Damagundam Reserve Forest (approximately at 17°16'N 77°56'E ). [8] This 2nd facility had the foundation stone laid in Oct 15 2024 with a plan to be operational by 2027 [9]
The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates significantly in the Persian Gulf Region, the Horn of Africa, the Strait of Malacca, and routinely conducts anti-piracy operations and partners with other navies in the region. It also conducts routine two to three month-long deployments in the South and East China seas as well as in the western Mediterranean sea simultaneously.
Super low frequency (SLF) is the ITU designation for electromagnetic waves in the frequency range between 30 hertz and 300 hertz. They have corresponding wavelengths of 10,000 to 1,000 kilometers. This frequency range includes the frequencies of AC power grids. Another conflicting designation which includes this frequency range is Extremely Low Frequency (ELF), which in some contexts refers to all frequencies up to 300 hertz.
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INS Kadamba or Naval Base Karwar or Project Seabird is an Indian Navy base located near Karwar in Karnataka. The first phase of construction of the base, code-named Project Seabird, was completed in 2005 and the base was commissioned on 31 May 2005. Development of Phase II commenced in 2011. INS Kadamba is currently the third largest Indian naval base, and is expected to become the largest naval base in the eastern hemisphere after completion of expansion Phase IIB. The construction of Naval Base covers an area of 11,169 acres in Phase I.
The Arihant-class is a class of Indian nuclear ballistic missile submarines under construction for the Indian Navy. They were developed under the ₹900 billion (US$11 billion) Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project to design and build nuclear-powered submarines. These vessels are classified as 'strategic strike nuclear submarines' by India.
In radio communication, a ground dipole, also referred to as an earth dipole antenna, transmission line antenna, and in technical literature as a horizontal electric dipole (HED), is a huge, specialized type of radio antenna that radiates extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves. It is the only type of transmitting antenna that can radiate practical amounts of power in the frequency range of 3 Hz to 3 kHz, commonly called ELF waves. A ground dipole consists of two ground electrodes buried in the earth, separated by tens to hundreds of kilometers, linked by overhead transmission lines to a power plant transmitter located between them. Alternating current electricity flows in a giant loop between the electrodes through the ground, radiating ELF waves, so the ground is part of the antenna. To be most effective, ground dipoles must be located over certain types of underground rock formations. The idea was proposed by U.S. Dept. of Defense physicist Nicholas Christofilos in 1959.
INS Rajali, is an Indian naval air station located near Arakkonam, Ranipet district, Tamil Nadu in southern India. It operates under the Southern Naval Command of the Indian Navy, and has the longest military runway in Asia.
Project Sanguine was a US Navy project proposed in 1968 for communication with submerged submarines using extremely low frequency (ELF) radio waves. The initially proposed system, hardened to survive a nuclear attack, would have required a giant antenna covering two-fifths of the state of Wisconsin. The proposed approach was never implemented because of protests and potential environmental impact. A smaller, less hardened system called Project ELF consisting of two linked ELF transmitters located at Clam Lake, Wisconsin 46°05′05.6″N90°55′03.7″W and Republic, Michigan 46°20′10.1″N87°53′04.6″W was built beginning in 1982 and operated from 1989 until 2004. The system transmitted at a frequency of 76 Hz. At ELF frequencies, the bandwidth of the transmission was very small, so the system could only send short-coded text messages at a very low data rate. These signals were used to summon specific vessels to the surface to receive longer operational orders by ordinary radio or satellite communication.
INS Arihant, designated S2 Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarine, is the lead ship of India's Arihant class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. The 6,000 tonne vessel was built under the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project at the Ship Building Centre in the port city of Visakhapatnam.
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INS Varsha is a new naval base being developed under Project Varsha for the Indian Navy. This base will be the home of the navy's new fleet of nuclear submarines and ships. It was planned to be located within a radius of approximately 200 kilometres from Visakhapatnam, the headquarters of the navy's Eastern Naval Command. Previous news reports suggested that Gangavaram had been the initial site for the new base. The base is now being developed at Rambilli, which is 50 km from Visakhapatnam.
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